I am an entrepreneur and communications expert from Salt Lake City, founder of Snapp Conner PR, and author of Beyond PR: Communicate Like A Champ The Digital Age, available at http://amzn.to/1AO0PxX. I am also a frequent author and speaker on Business Communication. The opinions I express (especially when tongue in cheek) are entirely my own. My newsletter is the Snappington Post, available at http://bit.ly/1iv67Wk

Employees Really Do Waste Time at Work, Part II

Previously, my friend Russ Warner, CEO of ContentWatch, has been getting a great deal of response to his post, Employees Really Do Waste Time at Work. So I interviewed him this week as a follow up to get some more of his thoughts.

The prevailing Gen Y attitude is that as long as work gets done, it doesn’t matter how many videos they watched while doing it.

According to Russ, we all waste time at work. This is the “elephant in the room.” And with more and more employees constantly wired, spending time on non-work-related stuff is easy. With your smartphone clutched in your hand, distractions are just a “tap” or “swipe” away. Employees readily go to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube, or email, shop, play games, and web surf — all from a personal phone or tablet. So there’s no surprise that 51% of U.S. workers believe using social media at work hurts productivity (Source: Kelly Services), and that’s only part of the story.

Personal use of smartphones makes it virtually impossible to track or monitor employees, if that is your organization’s goal. Employees don’t have to use their work PC to take a “timeout” during the day. Couple this “bring your own device” (or BYOD) phenomenon with the fact that younger workers have never experienced technology “scarcity,” and we have challenges.

For example, if you compare employees by age, studies show that younger workers are more likely to get distracted at work with technology. Employees born between 1980 and 1985 waste almost twice as much time as those born between 1960 and 1969. (Source: Under30CEO). The number one distraction: Internet.

One side effect of this always-on, 24/7 connectivity is depression. College students are the freshman class for employers. The consequences of our wired society will include increased medical costs and treatment expenses in the future.

According to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, depression among college students has risen, with a correlation to excessive Internet usage. There has been a 56% rise in depression in this age group within the past six years. The study found that college students with depression spend excessive amounts of time on the Internet…more than an average student without depression.

So what can we do about the bigger issue? One survey said that 42% of employers now prohibit workers from using social media altogether. A challenge with this strategy is that many younger employees (Gen Y) would rather forego a higher salary to work at an organization that doesn’t limit technology access. Specifically, one third would rather have access to social media at work than a larger salary, and 56% will not accept a job unless they have access to social media while at work.

Another serious distraction can be correlated to the lackluster U.S. economy—some employees are not invested in their work because of stress about personal finances (i.e., not paid enough because they took a lower-paying job). Up to 46% of employees use company time to search for a new job.

In fact, according to a recent study by PFEEF (The Personal Finance Employee Education Foundation, Inc.), focusing on dealing with personal financial problems can add up to more than 20 hours a month per employee.

In short, says Russ, you could spend time calculating the real cost of various workday distractions, but suffice to say it can be significant. Simply put, the average employee admits to wasting anywhere from 2 to 3 hours a day. Multiply that by the cost of the average wage plus benefits of your entire staff, and…well, you get the picture.

For a few specific issues, such as March Madness, employers could adopt an attitude of “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” rather than attempt to hold back the approaching tide of dissent. March Madness is such a huge temptation for sports fans that it might be best to allow some time to watch a game at work, maybe bring in some pizza, if employees agree to spend the rest of the time working, and go home to the DVR.

One other important consideration: Baby Boomer bosses (those born between 1946 and 1964) and Generation Y employees (those born between 1982 and 2004) are clashing. Boomers, the ones likely to be managing, have different expectations of “work” than do the Gen Y crowd, who like to mix work and outside life. Gen Y employees are four times more likely to waste time at work and most don’t see a problem with that.

The Gen Y prevailing attitude is that as long as work gets done, it doesn’t matter how many videos they watched while doing it. But all of this discussion avoids the primary concern: What is the root cause of employee distraction and time wasting? Is it a balance of work/play?

The model for several past generations has been to do work at work, not at home. But that has changed now that everyone is relentlessly connected by technology. It’s the norm for those with smartphones to incessantly check work email.

Telecommuting is on the rise. In fact, the joke is that telecommuting is just the name we give to work we do at home. But today, 69% of workers of all ages believe it is unnecessary to have to be in the office to get work done. Flex working is becoming a trend, where workers are welcome to work whenever they want, as long as the work gets done on time. You know your employees best, so you have to decide if this option is more motivating.

In a survey by Salary.com, 35% of employees responding said the number one reason for slacking at work was that they don’t feel challenged enough in their job. Running as a close second place, 34% claimed they waste time because they work too many hours.

Other reasons included: the company doesn’t give sufficient incentive to work harder, or the employee is unsatisfied with their career, or they’re just bored. Thus, it’s incumbent on managers to find ways to challenge employees. There are books written on the topic.

Russ Warner is a popular writer and an expert in issues of internet safety. He is also CEO of ContentWatch.

Google and Apple offer 20% free time and find it’s motivating to employees. Intel offers a sabbatical to longer-term employees.

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Cheryl, over the years I’ve made a conscious effort to stay “up” on technology. One of the drawbacks of this choice is that I’m more like the younger employees with respect to distraction. I’m constantly itching for a fix. What’s up on Facebook? What’s trending on Twitter? Who’s texting? What old person has sent me an email?

It took me 18 minutes to finish this comment because I got distracted on Pinterest.

I agree, Amber. We don’t ban social media. Actually, we wouldn’t dare, since it’s such an essential part of our communications programs. But limits are good. It’s easy to get carried away. Thanks for your note! Cheryl

@Amber. You’re right. Our company is now formulating new rules about social media in such a way that employees can check their Facebook, Twitter and their personal email accounts as well. We’ve had a debate on this last month because we don’t want a boring environment, we want people to enjoy their work and give them all the things they need to cater a recreation while working (not totally ban social media). But we wanted to be sure they’re working too that’s why we used some monitoring software (like Time Doctor) to check if they’re working or just browsing non-workrelated stuff.

Derik, internet monitoring software is actually a good idea, I believe. In the workplace it’s an issue of liability, if someone should be faced with unwanted material, and it’s a way to prevent virus from entering the system. It’s also a way to protect the bandwidth of the network for business use. These are all important considerations as well as the use of company time. Thanks for your note. -Cheryl

I loved my job and was so happy doing it. I never once found myself on Facebook or Twitter. When they changed management, the new boss was nice but he had no direction. When we gave input, he didn’t care. And he had a weird way of managing where he would take our credit and pass it on the higher execs as his. I lost respect for him, do my job 15%, really looking for another job, and everything I do, to him its still the same and he hasn’t noticed. I really want to live up to my potential but often daydream about leaving this place. My boss is a nice person, no doubt, but I guess in companies thats what happens… people who may not be qualified have to lead and end up sinking themselves with everyone in it.